Native American Children and Youth Well-Being Indicators

Saleebey (1997) later defined the term“strengths”:What people have learned about themselves,others, and their world, personalqualities, traits, and virtues that peoplepossess. What people know about theworld around them. The talents that peoplehave. Cultural and personal stories andlore. Pride … The community as physical,interpersonal, and institutional terrain.(1997 workshop handout, page unknown)Wieck, Rapp, Sullivan, and Kisthardt (1998)applied the term “strengths perspective” to theprofession of social work. Another definition ofstrengths was proposed by Early and GlenMaye(2000): “the strengths approach attempts tounderstand clients in terms of their strengths.This involves systematically examining survivalskills, abilities, knowledge, resources, and desiresthat can be used in some way to help meet clientgoals” (p. 119).Much of the literature on the strengths perspectivecomes from social work and psychology.Gutierrez, Parson, and Cox (1998) and Saleebey(1997) have discussed the value of using thestrengths and empowerment perspective andtechniques with individuals, families, groups,organizations, and communities. 4Rhee, Furlong, Turner, and Harari (2002) statedthat “a strength-based perspective tells a muchricher story about what children and adolescentsare doing to ‘make things happen’ and ‘succeeddespite the odds’ rather than just ‘letting thingshappen’ as passive bystanders in their own liveswith emphasis on how they fall short” (p. 4).The shift to a mainly strengths perspective ismade more difficult by the lack of agreed-upondefinitions regarding strengths, but it is nonethelessbecoming more integrated into the academiccurriculum of practice-oriented disciplines. Insome settings the strengths perspective is beingutilized quite often. Moore (1997) has advocatedfor a more comprehensive set of child indicatorsthat includes “both positive and negative aspectsof well-being” (p. 39). This is a major change indirection in the social sciences.Waller (2001) has discussed the theory, history,and assumptions of the strengths perspectiveand resilience concepts, positing the strengthsand resilience concepts within the grand theoryof “ecosystemic” understanding of behavior inwhich human behavior must be situated withininteractions and interrelationships with varioussystems and environments. Waller (2001) alsostated that “a holistic, ecosystemic perspective iscentral to the strength perspective” (p. 294), anddiscussed resilience in relation to its evolution asa concept in further detail, giving many characteristicsof this concept.As an innovative option for the helping professionals,Saleebey (2001) proposed an adaptation12